A letter to the author of the pamphlet called An answer [sic] to the…A letter to the author of the pamphlet called An answeer [sic] to the…

In Page 14, after mentioning our Pretences of tenderness to Mr. Breck, you say Yet it seems they so far forgot their own Cautions, that as soon as Mr. B—k left Springfield the first time, they let the Papers from Connecticut go about the Parish, when he was not there to make any Answer for himself. In which you deal unjustly by us. Those Papers from Connecticut were lodged in Mr. Hopkins's Hands, and when the Parish had chosen a Committee to ask the Advice of the Ministers of the County, whether they should again make Application to Mr. B—k, that Committee went to Mr. Hopkins, and desired that they might have those Papers to carry them to the Ministers in the upper Part of the County (whose Advice they intended first to ask) giving this as a Reason for it, viz. That those Gentlemen had heard the Papers but once, and might be the better able to give Advice, if they had a second View of them, Mr. Hopkins therefore (after cautioning them not to make any ill Use of them) gave them the Papers, and they being Mr. Breck's Friends, he had no Suspicion that they would use them to his Damage, nor have we any Reason to think they did: It is true they kept them much longer in their Hands than was expected, and where they went we know not, but if they went about the Parish to Mr. Breck's Damage, Mr. Breck's Friends are to blame for it, and not the Ministers of the County: And we assure you that they never went about the Parish any time, except while they were in the keeping of his Friends of that Parish.

And then you proceed, in Page 14, 15, 16 and 17. to raise an exceeding Outcry against us, as cruel, barbarous, unchristian and inhumane, and those whose tender Mercies are Cruelty, for publishing Mr. Clap's Testimony, in which he declared wherein he supposed Mr. Breck had been wanting to the Truth, in denying his stealing Books in College, because herein is contained a Mention of that Crime, that he was then guilty of when he was so young, &c. Tho' herein you represent us as a most vile Parcel of Men, and worthy of the utmost Detestation, yet we pray you with a little Seriousness to consider whether ⟨p. 9⟩or no your Treatment of us, with Respect to that Matter, be right in the Sight of GOD, and whether it han't been, on the contrary, exceeding unjust: What is it that we did, that we should be thus set forth as so exceeding black and vile? Our professed Design in writing our Book was to give the World a Narrative or History of our Proceedings in Mr. Breck's Affair; being, as we thought, obliged thereto by the Clamour that the Country was filled with against us, as having been intolerably injurious in that Affair: And in order to this, we gave an Account of and recite at large, that Information or Testimony that we received from the Reverend Mr. Clap that was the Occasion and main Foundation of those our Proceedings: And how was it possible for us to give the World a Narrative of our Proceedings, and not give an Account of that? For all our Proceedings were upon those Testimonies that were sent: How can any Judicature, or any that act publicly in a Cause, when they are complained of for Male-Administration or Injustice, vindicate themselves without giving an Account of those Informations or Testimonies on which they proceeded; and when they do so in their own necessary Vindication, is it just to cry out of them as the most monstrous and barbarous Wretches for so doing?